Wednesday, 7 December 2011

While the Abbott legend makes much of his education, religion and politics, there is very little mention of his early family life.

So to fill this gap there’s a little potted family background included in this brief profile of that notorious discount immigrant Anthony John Abbott, Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Parliament.

FatherAt sixteen years of age Richard Henry Abbott, (Ernest Henry Abbott- father and Jane Elizabeth Abbott née Keir - mother)arrived in Sydney, Australia on 17th January 1940 aboard the passenger ship Ulysses accompanied by his mother, four months after Britain declared war on Germany.

Father:
Anthony Bredschneijder Peters, Carpenter.
Born around 1907 in The Netherlands to Willemina Bredschneijder
who arrived in Australia in 1912 and in 1916 married for a second time to Hendrik F. Peters in the
District of Newtown NSW.

Mother:
Phyllis
Irene Lacey. Born in Wales
U.K. and in 1932 married Anthony
Peters in the District of Waverly NSW.

On 5th November 1955 Fay Peters arrived in England at Tilbury aboard the the P&0 liner Himalaya, stating an intention to visit in the U.K. for 18 months. She gave her U.K. address at the time as Crosby Hall, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

Parents marry in England

On 12th January 1957 in the district Westminster in the county of London Fay Peters wed Richard H. Abbott.

“Abbott is the only son of Richard and Fay Abbott, of Killara on Sydney's upper North Shore. His father has one of the largest orthodontist practices in Australia and Tony Abbott was born into the privileged world of secondary education at St Ignatius College, Riverview, one of only eight Sydney GPS schools.” {Sydney Morning Herald 27th March 1994}

“He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Sydney where he resided at St John's College, and was president of the Student Representative Council. He gained media attention for his political stance opposing the then dominant left-wing student leadership. He was also a prominent student boxer. He then went on to attend the Queen's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) in Politics and Philosophy…..

When Abbott was 19, his girlfriend became pregnant and believed Abbott to be the biological father. She was keen to get married but when Abbott refused she left him seven months into her pregnancy. She later gave birth to a son and had him adopted….. DNA testing later revealed that Abbott was not the man's father.” {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott}

“JUSTIN RICKARD, FAMILY FRIEND: I don't actually recall ever meeting Tony because he's a little bit older than me, just a little bit, but I do recall dating his younger sister at university and even in those days Tony was spoken very highly of in his family, with great awe and respect, and the phrase "future PM" was often whispered or should I say yelled around the family table.” {http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_882.asp

"In fact it was not until over twenty years after the family had arrived in Australia as subsidised assisted migrants that Tony Abbott’s parents applied to register his birth with the Dept. of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and apply for his citizenship, in a document/s dated 19th June 1981.

This application appears to have been treated as urgent by departmental staff.Although by now an adult, Tony Abbott did not attend any interview with the Dept. Immigration and Ethnic Affairs concerning this citizenship application according to an internal memo signed by a migration officer and held in the National Archives of Australia.

His parents were subsequently informed in a letter dated 1st July 1981 that Anthony John Abbott was now deemed to be an Australian citizen under Section 11 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 which allowed citizenship by descent, based on his mother's evidence of her own citizenship.

At this time Tony Abbott was 23 years and 7 months of age and, had either applied for a Rhodes Scholarship or was intending to apply for this scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Currently such applications must be applied for after 1 June in the year a Rhodes Scholarship is on offer.

The Howard Government lost the 2007 federal
election and Abbott went from being a government minister to being an
opposition MP. Apparently unwilling to alter his
life-style after he was appointed a shadow minister in December 2007, he
appears to have entered into ashared equity
loan arrangement - possibly in 2008 or 2009 when theRudd Labor Government
was supporting these loansthrough investment by the Australian
Office of Financial Management in the very financial institution listed in his
mandatory declarations found in theRegister of Members' Interests when he finally entered the
details in mid-2010.

In the Register of Members’ Interests
Abbott also lists his spouse as holding an
unspecified number of shares inGeneral
Gold Resources Inc. In 2007 he listed these shares asGeneral Gold Resources NL.

However, this West Australia mining corporation changed
its name in July 2002 toGeneral
Gold Resources Limitedand
a month later toYilgarn
Gold Limited.At
some later date it again changed its name toKairiki
Energy Limited. The company is currently listed on the Australian
Stock Exchange as a gold mining, petroleum, exploration and investment
company operating in Australia and the Philippines.

Because Tony Abbott was born in London U.K. before 1st January 1983 and had a British father he automatically became a British citizen at birth. {https://www.gov.uk/check-british-citizen}
No person holding dual citizenship can lawfully be a senator or member of the Australian Parliament.{http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/}
In March 2014 a Mr. Tony Magrathea entered into correspondence with Oxford University concerning the possibility that Abbott held dual citizenship.

Doubts about whether Abbott ever renounced his British citizenship remain and "Ninemsn
contacted the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet seeking confirmation that Mr Abbott has renounced his British
Citizenship. After a
three-hour wait, the office replied with this single-sentence statement: "The
Prime Minister is an Australian citizen and does not hold citizenship of any
other country." {Channel
9 News 2nd September 2014}The Sun Herald expanded on this news item with “An
online petition with more than 5400 signatories has called on Mr Abbott, who
was born in London to a British father, to produce his British citizenship
renunciation form. A spokesman for Mr Abbott last night would say only: “The
Prime Minister is an Australian citizen and he does not hold citizenship of any
other country.”

His
office refused to provide documents verifying this and would not say if Mr
Abbott had renounced British citizenship.” {Herald
Sun 3rd September 2014}Political career

Parliamentary
service

Elected to the House of
Representatives for Warringah, New South Wales at by-election 26.3.1994 vice
the Hon. MJR MacKellar (resigned). Re-elected 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007,
2010 and 2013.

Ministerial
appointments

Parliamentary Secretary to the
Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs from 11.3.96 to
21.10.98.

Minister for Employment Services
from 21.10.98 to 30.1.01.

Minister for Employment, Workplace
Relations and Small Business from 30.1.01 to 26.11.01.

Minister for Employment and
Workplace Relations from 26.11.01 to 7.10.03.

Minister Assisting the Prime Minister
for the Public Service from 26.11.01 to 7.10.03.

Minister for Health and Ageing from
7.10.03 to 3.12.07.

Prime Minister from 18.9.13 to
15.9.15.

Committee service

House of Representatives Standing:
Banking, Finance and Public Administration from 5.5.94 to 29.1.96; Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Affairs from 11.3.08 to 3.2.10; Family, Community,
Housing and Youth from 11.3.08 to 3.2.10.

Parliamentary
party positions

Leader of the House from 12.2.02 to
17.10.07.

Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry
from 6.12.07 to 18.9.13. Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services,
Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector from 6.12.07 to 22.9.08; Shadow
Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs from
22.9.08 to 1.12.09.

Leader of the Federal Parliamentary
Liberal Party from 1.12.09 to 14.9.15.

On 14th September 2015 a federal party room meeting of Liberal Party MPs and senators removed Abbott as leader of the parliamentaryparty and, in a 44 to 54 vote installed Malcolm Bligh Turnbull as prime minister. Abbott had been Australian prime minister for only seven hundred and twenty-six days.A broad consensus emerged in the Australian media in relation to Abbott's term in office, which is encapsulated in this 19th September 2015 quote:

“Abbott governed for the past and the few conservatives desperate to continue living there. He governed against science and in contempt of the environment. He governed in opposition to social equality, in terror of reform. His was a government of fear and avoidance, a rolling sideshow anxiously avoiding the fact it had nothing to add and no idea what to do.”

“I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this
idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the
idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think are both, they both need to be
moderated, so to speak.”

“I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or
even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because
their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological
reasons”

9 comments:

Richard Abbott wasn't a "labourer" when he left Newcastle on Tyne in the first weeks after WW2 began. He was a 15 year old boy, travelling on the "1st class only" Blue Funnel liner "SS Ulysses" - presumably one of those sent seeking refuge from the war by well off families at the time.

Abbott worked briefly as a labourer (2 months) for BHP at Newcastle steelworks (NSW) when he was about 18, in 1942, before joining the RAAF, and then studying to become a dentist under Australia's armed forces reptriation scheme.

He spent 14 years in Australia before returning to England in 1954, then spent 6 years there before coming back as an 'assisted migrant".

All Australians would have been British subjects in those days, same as anyone who was a subject of the Commonwealth so why would Abbott's mum have had to apply for British citiizenship? My folks were Maltese and the wer issued with Birish passports as I imagine Australians would have been. I could be wrong but Abbott was surely a subject of the Commonwealth which if that be the case their assisted migration would have been a rort, particularly seeing as they obviously had the means to come and go as they pleased. My dad was a electrical mechanic and he came and went to Australia a number of times before settling here but he always paid his own way and only once got help from the catholic church to bring my mum and their 7 kids here the final time. It really outlines Abbott's classist hypocrisy when you compare the two situations as well as his hypocrisy in demonizing so called ïllegals who are really generally found to be genuine refugees for political expediency in trying to attract the racist, fear laden voters. The process we know now as "dog whistling". I can't help thinking this bloke is as dangerous as Hitler as he doesn't seem to think of the consequences of his actions and words which continue to divide the nation and spread fear and ignorance. His dads money may have bought him an education but he seems to posses very little knowledge. Particularly when it comes to society and the things which keep it united. Like Malcolm Fraser said ""He is a very dangerous politician". he may unleash forces which he will find become uncontrollable over time.

Yes Tony Abbott came from a family that had struggle from labourer to univerity study to become a family whose ethics and philosophy enabled them to bring up 4 very unique independant children.

Tony has been part of a TEAM, with Margie, who can be judged by the way thei daughters have grown as indepnedant women with a philosophy that embareces the very bets in involvement with their community and life.

So maybe you might know when he applied for citizenship by decent? There doesnt seem to be any proof in the national archives and his citizenship seems quite noticeable in its absence from your writings. Even he would have to fill in forms and apply for citizenship by decent, it doesnt just come because you say your mum is an aussie

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
[Adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948]

NSW North Coast

Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Moggy Musings

Hi! My name is Boy. I'm a male bi-coloured tabby cat. Ever since I discovered that Malcolm Turnbull's dogs were allowed to blog, I have been pestering Clarencegirl to allow me a small space on North Coast Voices.

A false flag musing: I have noticed one particular voice on Facebook which is Pollyanna-positive on the subject of the Port of Yamba becoming a designated cruise ship destination. What this gentleman doesn’t disclose is that, as a principal of Middle Star Pty Ltd, he could be thought to have a potential pecuniary interest due to the fact that this corporation (which has had an office in Grafton since 2012) provides consultancy services and tourismbusiness development services.

A religion & local government musing: On 11 October 2017 Clarence Valley Council has the Church of Jesus Christ Development Fund Inc in Sutherland Local Court No. 6 for a small claims hearing. It would appear that there may be a little issue in rendering unto Caesar. On 19 September 2017 an ordained minister of a religion (which was named by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to 40 instances of historical child sexual abuse on the NSW North Coast) read the Opening Prayer at Council’s ordinary monthly meeting. Earlier in the year an ordained minister (from a church network alleged to have supported an overseas orphanage closed because of child abuse claims in 2013) read the Opening Prayer and an ordained minister (belonging to yet another church network accused of ignoring child sexual abuse in the US and racism in South Africa) read the Opening Prayer at yet another ordinary monthly meeting. Nice one councillors - you are covering yourselves with glory!

An investigative musing: Newcastle Herald, 12 August 2017: The state’s corruption watchdog has been asked to investigate the finances of the Awabakal Aboriginal Local Land Council, less than 12 months after the troubled organisation was placed into administration by the state government. The Newcastle Herald understands accounting firm PKF Lawler made the decision to refer the land council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after discovering a number of irregularities during an audit of its financial statements.The results of the audit were recently presented to a meeting of Awabakal members. Administrator Terry Lawler did not respond when contacted by the Herald and a PKF Lawler spokesperson said it was unable to comment on the matter. Given the intricate web of company relationships that existed with at least one former board member it is not outside the realms of possibility that, if ICAC accepts this referral, then United Land Councils Limited (registered New Zealand) and United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd(registered Australia) might be interviewed. North Coast Voices readers will remember that on 15 August 2015 representatives of these two companied gave evidence before NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY INTO CROWN LAND. This evidence included advocating for a Yamba mega port.

A Nationals musing: Word around the traps is that NSW Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has been talking up the notion of cruise ships visiting the Clarence River estuary. Fair dinkum! That man can be guaranteed to run with any bad idea put to him. I'm sure one or more cruise ships moored in the main navigation channel on a regular basis for one, two or three days is something other regular river users will really welcome. *pause for appreciation of irony* The draft of the smallest of the smaller cruise vessels is 3 metres and it would only stay safely afloat in that channel. Even the Yamba-Iluka ferry has been known to get momentarily stuck in silt/sand from time to time in Yamba Bay and even a very small cruise ship wouldn't be able to safely enter and exit Iluka Bay. You can bet your bottom dollar operators of cruise lines would soon be calling for dredging at the approach to the river mouth - and you know how well that goes down with the local residents.

A local councils musing: Which Northern Rivers council is on a low-key NSW Office of Local Government watch list courtesy of feet dragging by a past general manager?

A serial pest musing: I'm sure the Clarence Valley was thrilled to find that a well-known fantasist is active once again in the wee small hours of the morning treading a well-worn path of accusations involving police, local business owners and others.

An investigative musing: Which NSW North Coast council is batting to have the longest running code of conduct complaint investigation on record?

A which bank? musing: Despite a net profit last year of $9,227 million the Commonwealth Bank still insists on paying below Centrelink deeming rates interest on money held in Pensioner Security Accounts. One local wag says he’s waiting for the first bill from the bank charging him for the privilege of keeping his pension dollars at that bank.

A Daily Examiner musing: Just when you thought this newspaper could sink no lower under News Corp management, it continues to give column space to Andrew Bolt.

A thought to ponder musing: In case of bushfire or flood - do you have an emergency evacuation plan for the family pet?

An adoption musing: Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home. If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766 or your local council pound.